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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Crisis of credibility hits govt Lokpal search panel

Crisis of credibility hits govt Lokpal search panel

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published Published on Mar 4, 2014   modified Modified on Mar 4, 2014
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: Days after senior lawyer Fali Nariman declined to be part of the Lokpal search committee, more embarrassment was headed the government's way with former Supreme Court judge K T Thomas turning down its offer to head the panel.

Thomas wrote to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) declining consent and raising doubts over the two-layered procedure to finalize the chairman and members of the anti-corruption watchdog. Noting that the search panel's recommendations were not binding on the selection panel, he wondered if it was worth having a search panel in the first place.

"I have written to PMO expressing disinclination to head the Lokpal search committee," news agencies quoted Thomas as saying in Kottayam, Kerala.

"The reason is when I went through the rules, our committee which is called the search committee was to recommend names to the selection committee. The selection committee need or need not accept those names. So it was not worthwhile to have this search committee," the former judge said.

The BJP on Monday seized on the successive snubs from Nariman and Thomas, describing them as a "double blow" to the government and alleging that they had exposed the Congress's design of hurriedly putting in place the ombudsman before it was out of power. The Congress, on its part, said giving or not giving consent was "private decisions" and could not be linked to the government.

Thomas's distancing himself from the search committee comes barely a week after Nariman wrote to minister of state for personnel V Narayanasamy, declining to be part of the search panel. He had pointed to flaws in the selection procedure, and claimed that it was bound to overlook the most deserving candidates.

"The chairperson and members of the Lokpal, as ultimately selected, may well be projected as democratically chosen by a broad consensus from amongst two levels of selectors, but it is precisely for that reason that I do fear that the most competent, the most independent and the most courageous will get overlooked," Nariman had said.

Thomas on Monday told news agencies that though his decision to opt out of the search panel was not influenced by Nariman, it did make him go through the rules to see if it was worthwhile to be on the panel.

Thomas was a judge in the apex court between 1996 and 2002.

The eight-member search committee, constituted by the Lokpal selection committee headed by the prime minister, is mandated to prepare a panel of persons to be considered by the selection committee. It is the latter that gives final approval to the names for chairman and members of the Lokpal.

The selection process for Lokpal has been mired in controversy with leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj, who is also on the Lokpal selection committee, earlier objecting to senior advocate P P Rao's choice for the search committee. She was subsequently outvoted, but recorded her dissent.

The Times of India, 4 March, 2014, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Crisis-of-credibility-hits-govt-Lokpal-search-panel/articleshow/31358312.cms


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